Dior – Facade Lighting – New York, NY

As luminous facades have become more popular, it has become that much more critical to ensure that these challenging lighting applications can be accomplished without consuming too much energy or becoming a huge maintenance headache over time. Dior enlisted our help to ensure that their facade would absolutely dazzle passing shoppers with an optical illusion effect created by the careful backlighting their signature cannage pattern.

Some of the challenges we faced with this feature involved working within the shallow depth allotted within the storefront, a very high light level target: 350 footcandles, and the necessity of achieving a brilliant cool white color tint. Numerous LED products were considered and complex mockups were conducted, but in the end, the solution we designed not only met the high light level requirement but also worked within the budget and schedule constraints. The facade continues to look great both day and night and generates a large crowd reaction as tourists walk up and down 57th street and take notice of the dynamic, glowing, jeweled optical illusion created by the cannage pattern. The awning was subsequently redesigned to match the brilliant white lighting of the facade.